US launches airstrike against Qaeda

An AC-130 gunship flying from Djibouti carries out the attack in Somalia after US intelligence tracked the operatives.

The US military has launched a strike in Somalia against Al-Qaeda operatives suspected of playing a role in the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, CBS television reported.

A Somali government source said that the air attack left "many dead".

An AC-130 gunship flying from Djibouti carried out the attack in southern Somalia after US intelligence tracked the operatives with an unmanned aerial drone, the news network reported on Monday.

CBS cited reports of dead bodies in the area, but there was no verification as to whether the Al-Qaeda agents were among them.

One of the targets was believed to be Al-Qaeda's senior leader in East Africa.

The report comes as Islamists who had gained control of most of Somalia were on the run after an Ethiopian-supported assault against them.

There was no immediate comment of the report from the Pentagon, but CNN later cited a senior Pentagon official as saying an attack had occurred.

US, Ethiopian and Kenyan intelligence officials say some Islamists provided shelter to a handful of Al-Qaeda members, and that suspects in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania used Somalia as a base.